I've blogged before about how travel sites are turning to SEO because they are in such a competitive industry. Therefore I was interested to read that they have recently been slated for not giving the consumer what they want.

I firmly believe that the Internet was a revelation for booking travel and it seems unlikely now that someone would turn to a telephone booking service rather than a website for booking a flight. However, Forrester Research's data seems to indicate that they are somehow missing the point in meeting consumer needs. Some of the problems (11 per cent of US online leisure hotel guests say it's more difficult to shop for travel online now than when they started) are almost certainly down to the proliferation of choices on the Internet, making the array of options more confusing.

What is more surprising is that 15 per cent feel the Internet doesn't help them save money. Now originally, that was usually the driver for booking online; but have those savings been brought in across the board, so there are no longer "online only" discounts? And perhaps the savings for booking independent travel instead of packages have gradually been eroded over time.

Still, I'm sure that this January will prove to the busiest ever for travel websites, as it is traditionally their strongest month. Vertical Leap has certainly been busy positioning our travel SEO campaigns to take advantage of the post-Christmas period and our clients seem to be looking forward to the extra traffic.